Pauline Liu: Six top local teachers chosen to train other educators

Monday

Oct 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Biology teacher Ernest VanderKruik is at the top of his game. Now he — and five others who are similarly top-notch in the region, get the chance to sharpen and shape future teachers, as well as students.

Pauline Liu

Biology teacher Ernest VanderKruik is at the top of his game. Now he — and five others who are similarly top-notch in the region, get the chance to sharpen and shape future teachers, as well as students.

What has he done? For VanderKruik, what began as a project for his after-school research club at the S.S. Seward Institute resulted in an invention — a portable, solar-powered autoclave to sterilize medical instruments.

In 2011, his students in the Florida School District won a grant to build it. They named it HelioCave. VanderKruik's teaching work was recognized last week when Gov. Andrew Cuomo made good on his State of the State promise to create a Master Teacher peer-mentoring program.

VanderKruik was among six educators selected from the mid-Hudson for the state's first group of Master Teachers.

According to Cuomo, "105 of the most qualified math and science educators from four regions of the state" were selected.

They now have the job of assisting new teachers in the classroom in order to help them develop into the next generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teachers.

Regular meetings and training sessions are to be built into the program. For their efforts, the Master Teachers will receive an annual stipend of $15,000 over the next four years.

It also means that these remarkable educators will find themselves remarkably busy as they try to do their share to deliver the "world-class education system" that the governor has envisioned.

In addition to VanderKruik, congratulations are in order for the following teachers: Martha Brunelle of Middletown; Beverly Browne Fazio, Natalie Morales, Aileen Toback and Juan Urena of the Newburgh School District.

All these educators were selected because of their abilities to inspire students. Now, they're being asked to show new teachers what it takes to help students generate enthusiasm for learning.

The regional program will be working in conjunction with the SUNY New Paltz campus.

As for the autoclave invented by the S.S. Seward students, they saw it as a way to help people in developing countries, such as Mozambique in eastern Africa, fight infections caused by medical instruments that have not been proper cleaned.

At the time, theirs was the only portable, solar-powered unit of its kind. They found that the cost of patenting their invention "overwhelming," but they've put the information online, and now it's public domain.

What does it take to inspire kids to invent and think outside the box? If the program works, educators like VanderKruik will be able to share that knowledge with others.

"I love the challenge of keeping up with current research and presenting it in a form that our students can use and appreciate," he said.